Chase Paze × United: Earn 14x Points Through Dec 31, 2026

A Chase Sapphire Reserve cardholder who buys a United Airlines ticket through Paze right now earns 14x Ultimate Rewards points — and if you route the full monthly cap through Paze for the rest of 2026, that's roughly 112,500 bonus points, worth about $1,687 in travel. The catch: it runs through a wallet most people have never opened, and it ends December 31, 2026.

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TL;DR

• Chase is handing eligible Sapphire and Freedom cardholders +10x Ultimate Rewards per $1 when you check out with Paze at participating merchants — on top of your card's normal earn rate.
• On a United Airlines ticket, a Sapphire Reserve earns 14x (4x direct-airfare base + 10x Paze). Other Chase cards land between 11x and 15x.
• The bonus is capped at $1,500 in Paze purchases per month → up to 15,000 bonus points per month.
• Promo window: May 1 → December 31, 2026. The bonus credit posts 6–8 weeks after each purchase.
• Paze is a bank-owned digital wallet baked into your Chase app — no new download, no signup fee.
• Works on new ticket purchases only — no change fees, upgrade co-pays, or add-ons. 18+, personal cards only, no authorized users.
• Whether the $1,500 cap is per card or per cardholder is officially ambiguous — Chase hasn't confirmed. Plan conservatively.

What is Paze? The wallet hiding in your Chase app

If you've never heard of Paze, you're not alone — and that's exactly why this promo is underused. Paze is a digital wallet, the same category as Apple Pay, Google Pay, and PayPal. The difference is who owns it: Paze is run by Early Warning Services, the bank-owned consortium behind Zelle. Its owners are seven of the largest U.S. banks — Chase, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Capital One, PNC, U.S. Bank, and Truist.

In practice, Paze stores your eligible credit and debit cards and lets you check out at participating online merchants without typing in your card number. There's no separate app to install if you bank with Chase — your eligible cards can be enrolled directly from inside the Chase mobile app. At checkout on a participating site, "Paze" shows up as a payment button alongside the usual options.

For most of its life, Paze has been a solution in search of a reason for consumers to care. This promotion is that reason. Chase is effectively paying you 10 extra Ultimate Rewards points per dollar to get its cardholders in the habit of using it — a textbook adoption play, and a genuinely good deal while it lasts. The earn rates get silly enough at the top end that it's worth the few minutes to set up.

The math: what each Chase card earns on a United ticket

The +10x Paze bonus stacks on top of whatever your card already earns in that category. Because the Sapphire Reserve earns 4x on flights booked directly with an airline (per Chase's Sapphire Reserve page), a direct United purchase through Paze hits 14x. Here's the full lineup:

Chase card	Base earn on direct United airfare	+ Paze bonus	Total on United
Chase Sapphire Reserve	4x	+10x	14x ⭐
Chase Sapphire Preferred	2x	+10x	12x
Chase Freedom Unlimited	1.5x	+10x	11.5x
Chase Freedom Flex	1x (up to 5x if a rotating category overlaps)	+10x	11x–15x
Chase Freedom (original)	1x	+10x	11x

The Sapphire Reserve row is the headline — 14x on a category where most cards earn 1x to 5x. And if you happen to hold a Freedom Flex during a quarter whose 5% rotating category overlaps a Paze merchant, you can briefly touch 15x, the highest rate available in this promo.

A note on the points themselves: Sapphire cardholders can pool Freedom points into their Sapphire Ultimate Rewards account and transfer to airline and hotel partners 1:1. If that mechanic is new to you, I walk through exactly how it turned into a free family trip in how I booked an all-inclusive Cancun resort with Chase points.

Putting a dollar figure on it

The bonus is capped at $1,500 in Paze spend per month, which means up to 15,000 bonus points per month. From mid-May through December 31 there are roughly 7.5 months left in the promo, so a cardholder who maxes the cap every month captures about:

15,000 × 7.5 ≈ 112,500 bonus Ultimate Rewards points.

What that's worth depends entirely on how you redeem:

• At 1.5 cents per point (the Sapphire Reserve's Chase Travel portal value): 112,500 × $0.015 = ~$1,687 in travel.
• At 2.0 cents per point (a realistic floor when you transfer to partners like World of Hyatt or United MileagePlus): 112,500 × $0.02 = ~$2,250+.

Those figures are the bonus points only — you also earn your card's normal base points on the same spend, on top of everything. The point isn't that everyone will hit the cap every month; it's that the ceiling here is unusually high for a no-spend-requirement promo.

How to activate Paze (step by step)

You don't have to do anything special to "register" for the bonus beyond getting your eligible card into Paze. Two ways to do it:

1. Open the Chase mobile app.
2. Tap your eligible Sapphire or Freedom card.
3. Go to Manage Account → Digital Wallets → Paze.
4. Follow the prompts to add the card to Paze.

Alternatively, you can auto-enroll on your first checkout at a participating Paze merchant — when you select Paze as your payment method, you'll be walked through adding your Chase card on the spot. Chase's own Paze setup guide covers the in-app path in more detail.

Once your card is in Paze, simply choose the Paze button at checkout on a participating merchant's site. The +10x bonus is applied automatically to qualifying purchases — but remember, the bonus credit posts 6–8 weeks after the purchase, not instantly.

Where you can actually use it

Paze acceptance is narrower than Apple Pay, so the merchant list matters. The full, current directory lives at paze.com/merchant-directory, but the names most worth your attention:

• United Airlines — the marquee use case, and the reason a Sapphire Reserve holder gets to 14x.
• Dunkin' — small recurring purchases that quietly chip toward the monthly cap.
• Sephora, Newegg, Domino's, ShopRite — useful if your normal spending already runs through any of them.

The roster skews toward a handful of large retailers rather than broad coverage, so the practical strategy is to identify which Paze merchants you'd buy from anyway and steer that spend through the wallet.

The catches (read this before you count the points)

No promo this rich is without fine print. The ones that matter:

• The cap is ambiguous. The terms say "up to $1,500 in total combined purchases each month" without spelling out whether that's per card or per cardholder. The points community's working interpretation leans toward per card, which would let someone with multiple eligible cards multiply the cap. But Chase has not officially confirmed this. If you're banking on stacking several cards, treat the extra points as a maybe, not a sure thing.
• New tickets only. On United, the bonus applies to new ticket purchases — not change fees, not upgrade co-pays, not seat or bag add-ons.
• Personal cards, 18+, no authorized users. Business cards are excluded, and authorized-user spend doesn't qualify.
• Slow posting. Bonus points land 6–8 weeks after each purchase. Don't panic when they're not in your account the next day, and keep your own tally.
• Hard deadline. The promo ends December 31, 2026. Purchases after that date don't earn the bonus.

Stacking strategy: how to actually max it out

If you want to wring the most out of this before year-end, a few moves:

1. Anchor the cap with a year-end United ticket. Holiday and early-2027 travel booked direct with United is the single cleanest way to put a big chunk against the $1,500/month cap at 14x on a Sapphire Reserve. One ~$1,500 fare = a full month's cap in one transaction.
2. Use monthly billing for any Paze subscription merchants. Recurring charges that route through Paze quietly accumulate toward the cap without you thinking about it.
3. Spread, don't dump. Because the cap resets monthly, $1,500 in one month and $0 the next earns less than $1,500 across two months. If you have flexibility on timing, smooth your Paze spend across the remaining months.
4. Mind the posting lag when timing December. With a 6–8 week posting window, December purchases still qualify (they're made before the deadline) — but verify they tracked before assuming the points are coming.
5. If you hold multiple eligible cards, the per-card interpretation might let you run separate $1,500 caps on each — but see the ambiguity warning above before you build a plan around it.

FAQ

Does the Paze bonus stack with a card's welcome bonus?

Yes. Paze spend counts as normal purchases, so it contributes to a new card's minimum-spend requirement and earns the +10x bonus. If you're chasing a sign-up bonus and have a Paze merchant to buy from, you get both at once.

What if my bonus points don't post?

Give it the full 6–8 weeks first — the credit is intentionally delayed. If they still haven't shown after that, contact Chase with the purchase date, merchant, and amount. Keep your own running log of qualifying Paze purchases so you can prove the spend.

Do business cards qualify?

No. The promo is limited to personal Sapphire and Freedom cards. Business cards (Ink, etc.) and authorized-user cards are excluded.

Is the $1,500 cap per card or per person?

Officially unclear. The points community's working interpretation is per card, but Chase hasn't confirmed it. Plan conservatively and treat any multi-card stacking as upside, not a guarantee.

Which card gives the highest rate?

On United specifically, the Sapphire Reserve at 14x is the headline. The only way to beat it is a Freedom Flex during a quarter whose 5% rotating category overlaps a Paze merchant, which can reach 15x.

Do I need to download a separate Paze app?

No. If you bank with Chase, you enroll your eligible card from inside the Chase mobile app (Manage Account → Digital Wallets → Paze), or auto-enroll on your first Paze checkout.

Can I use this on award tickets or partner airlines?

The bonus applies to paid purchases at participating merchants. Award redemptions (where you're spending miles, not dollars) aren't purchases and won't earn the Paze bonus.

What happens after December 31, 2026?

The +10x bonus ends. Paze itself keeps working as a wallet — you just earn your card's normal rate. Whether Chase extends or repeats the promo is unknown; treat the deadline as firm.

Bottom line

If you already hold a Chase Sapphire Reserve, Sapphire Preferred, or a Freedom card, this is close to free money on spending you may already be doing — especially if a United ticket is anywhere in your next eight months. Get your card into Paze, point your eligible spend through it, and keep a tally until the bonus posts.

One thing I'd not do: open a brand-new Chase card purely to chase this promo. Stacked annual fees will eat the value fast, and the $795 Sapphire Reserve fee doesn't pay for itself off a points promo alone. This is a perk for cards you'd carry anyway — not a reason to apply. (If you're weighing the Reserve on its own merits, I ran the full return-on-spend math in May 2026's bonuses, ranked.)

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Sources

• Chase — How to set up and use Paze
• Chase — Sapphire Reserve card details & earn rates
• Merchant directory — paze.com/merchant-directory

This post is informational and not financial advice. Promotion terms, earn rates, and merchant participation can change — verify current details with Chase and Paze before relying on them.